Rayan sinks Fulham's European dreams after red card for reckless Andersen
Bournemouth claim 1-0 win at the Cottage after both sides reduced to ten men
Another game ends in defeat, another week ends with Fulham rooted in midtable, another season appears to be ending with our club watching our contemporaries take themselves into Europe. One of them, Bournemouth, are the victors today - a 1-0 win pushing Andoni Iraola’s soon-to-be-former side another step towards the hallowed ground of midweek football on the continent. A promising start to the afternoon turned sour, as a temporary man-advantage was evaporated by an utterly avoidable red card for Joachim Andersen, and our familiar feebleness in the face of a challenge let Rayan strike a goal for Bournemouth to turn into victory. Marco Silva cut a forlorn figure on the sidelines - our season shows ominous signs of petering out entirely.
First Half
Unbeaten since January, Bournemouth arrived at the Cottage with solid ambitions of Europe - possibly even the Champions League - ringing in their ears. Fulham would need a stronger performance than their whimpering afternoon at Arsenal if they were to realise their own continental ambitions. Thankfully, the London sunshine stirred a bit of life in the team, and we started confidently with the ball, moving nicely around the pitch and earning a couple of corners that gave Cairney and Wilson the chance to strike volley at goal, albeit to no avail.
Bournemouth aren’t in such a lofty position through chance, and Iraola’s tactics weren’t stumped through our possession. Long aerial balls from technicians like Senesi swung into our final third, attempting to advantage Castagne with the pace of Evanilson, Tavernier and Truffert probing our flank. Their physical proficiency let them activate their moves when they successfully stole the ball from us, moving tenaciously in midfield and working the ball quickly to their forwards. Scott did this well, working a quick ball to Tavernier that was blasted over by the winger, and another that Rayan might have burrowed into shooting position with had Robinson not diligently warded the winger out of play.
But these were against the run of play. Cairney’s reintroduction brought us a smoothness across the pitch, anchoring the team in midfield and keeping Bournemouth chasing the play. The sight of US national coach Mauricio Pochettino in the stands seemed to lift Robinson, who had some of his old energy back travelling down the wing. This let Chukwueze play a more flexible role, getting into attacking positions on both wings to force open cracks in Bournemouth’s defence. With Lukic prowling around productively and Smith Rowe linking play around the attack, Fulham moved into a range of dangerous positions across the half.
Not for the first time though, our forwards couldn’t find the edge. Castagne, enjoying his best run of form for some time, overlapped behind Tavernier to take a pass from Castagne on the right wing - his cross was delectable, travelling straight into Muniz’s path, but the Brazilian’s finish was blunt and knocked the ball wide of the post from a very scorable position. His stature was proving difficult for Senesi and Hill to handle, but the execution and selection of his touches was wayward - an elaborate bicycle kick from a Lukic corner looked fancy but didn’t trouble or even reach Petrovic, and needed more from the striker. Wilson struggled too - his footwork got him into good positions but hesitating in pursuit of the perfect shot let Truffert, and even Scott on one occasion, catch up and snuff out the move.
Yet Bournemouth offered us a lifeline. Castagne had been productive down the right and midfielder Christie tried to eliminate the danger with a slide tackle on the fullback. It was rough, travelling several metres with his feet off the ground, and his studs planted into Castagne’s heel. Referee Andy Madley awarded a yellow card; VAR’s intervention allowed him to see the danger of the challenge, and the sanction was upgraded to a red. It was a huge boost for Fulham, and looked to send the hosts into the break with the wind in their sails. We might have taken the lead - the eventual free kick was worked short by Wilson and Chukwueze, before the former lifted a nice ball into the box that Andersen’s header looped into the bar. Moments later, some industry from Robinson led to a long shot from Lukic with enough power to force Petrovic into a dive. Everything looked set up to give Fulham a chance to flex their advantage over Bournemouth in the second half.
If only football was so kind. With the half almost over, time ticking away in the stoppages, a clever turn from Tavernier on Castagne led to Andersen throwing himself at Truffert to stop the move. Madley awarded a yellow, Bournemouth’s players furiously swarmed the referee, and the replays demonstrated why - Andersen had leapt off his feet, both feet off the ground, and though he’d managed to take the ball, enough of his feet had struck Truffert to cause serious damage. VAR’s intervention was inevitable, and to our dismay the red card was produced for our centre-back, our first of the season. He trudged off, deflating our mood, and had Rayan put his header from Tavernier’s freekick on-target instead of wide the atmosphere may have been terminal.
Second Half
Our advantage had dissipated in minutes and despite being level with our visitors the nature of the red card felt like a critical blow. Bournemouth had withdrawn a peripheral Evanilson for the industrious Tyler Adams, bolstering their midfield - to introduce Diop, our sacrifice was Emile Smith Rowe, perhaps unfortunate to be swapped out given his performance had been better than his fellow attackers. It was a quick restart, too - a Bassey run along the left saw Rayan divert a ball away from Wilson for an early corner, and from the clearance Truffert took play from his own half all the way to our goal, moving from a wide right position to take an effort at goal that Leno had to smother. There was more space on the pitch through the double dismissal and the players tried to make the most of it. Robinson, showcasing more of his pace, collected a pass at the halfway line and ran beyond Smith, turning Hill in the box, but the defence had closed up the space to the degree that the left-back’s eventual shot was take with his weaker foot and easily dealt with.
This space, however, suited Bournemouth’s athletic runners more than our patient possession. There’s something to be said about the lack of genuine pace in our team, the raw ability to barrel forward with a few touches, and with the levers of control weakened our grasp on the game started to slip from where it had been in the first half. A pointless yellow card from Muniz pulling Senesi down seemed to be the catalyst - Bournemouth flooded forward, eating up the grass in our half by pushing their fullbacks up and stepping into our half with intent. Wilson found himself outmuscled on the wings (with his complaints for a foul ignored), letting Tavernier move the ball centrally for Kroupi for the young Frenchman to turn and shoot at goal. It beat Leno, and only the crossbar could stop the shot going in.
It was a stark warning, and one Fulham failed to heed. Senesi carried the ball out of defence, playing it to the productive Truffert in an advanced position on the left. He crossed the ball deep, slightly too far for Rayan to reach, but Smith collected it on the right flank, moving it back to Rayan tucked slightly more centrally. Striding just enough away from Chukwueze, the winger made the angle and blasted the ball straight at goal, deflecting off Bassey with enough of a degree to fly beyond Leno’s dive. The goal sucked the life out of the team for a moment - Chukwueze had the ball stolen from him by Rayan on the wings, feeding Tavernier for a shot Leno had to stop, and a clever pass from Truffert let the winger work himself past Diop and angle an effort Leno again needed to repel from the goal.
We needed changes, and a Robinson cross shanked behind the goal brought them. Kevin and Bobb arrived for a tired Chukwueze and a flat Wilson, and injected a little more dynamism and speed into the wings. Bobb was involved immediately, cutting inside from Truffert and playing a one-two with Lukic to have a shot from inside the D, but in the rush lifted it too high. A bit of energy in midfield gave us the impetus we needed, and Kevin’s eagerness to get involved put Bournemouth on the back foot at last, forcing Adams, Scott and the pacey front line backwards to support the defence and taking the pressure off Diop and a valiant Bassey. Finding a bit of space, Cairney slammed a shot into Adams for a corner, and Bobb did similar from a volley following its clearance. A clever combination from Robinson and Kevin eliminated Rayan and took the Brazilian away from Smith, but the cross was caught well by Petrovic, who also punched a Kevin shot and a Castagne cross over his bar.
King arrived for the fatigued Cairney and took his energy straight into the game, linking up nicely around the pitch and playing a direct set of passes across the pitch. Arguably his defensive contribution was his biggest impact: a scuppered corner let Kroupi break from defence, moving the ball onto Rayan before Robinson could haul him down, Rayan drove forward, skipping into the box around our team before Castagne tackled him as he aimed for goal, and but for King’s clearance away from Adams and block from Truffert’s shot in the rebound, we’d have gone 2-0 down.
The game had become increasingly scrappy - yellow cards for Lukic, Scott, Robinson and King punctuated the half, and a Bournemouth triple substitution let them pour their efforts into disrupting our play and carrying them across the finish line. In all honesty another day might have seen them extend their lead - a brilliant pass through the lines by Hill saw Adli latch onto the ball in the box, felled by Leno in the aftermath and demand a penalty, only denied by an offside flag. Our dominance of possession was shut out by a well-organised Bournemouth, who were undeterred by us pouring our players forward in the knowledge that we weren’t able to react quick enough to the pockets of space left available.
Kusi-Asare arrived for Castagne in a desperate attempt to find the equaliser as time slipped away. A deluge of cheap free-kicks and half-hearted corners were spurned by us in the closing stages, some failing to clear the first man, most well defended by Bournemouth, all failing to cause trouble for Petrovic. Bournemouth, again, produced more from their counter attacks against our open defence, Unal sliding a cross across the box that would have been an easy tap-in for Adli in any other circumstance. With minutes to go in stoppage time, a long throw from Robinson was bundled out of a congested box, Bobb headed it rightwards for King to overlap, the youngster wriggled away from the noise to angle his body and blast a shot over Petrovic, smacking the underside of the bar… and bouncing narrowly in front of the line, letting Bournemouth head the ball away. The resulting corner produced another long-throw, the long-throw produced a foul, and Bournemouth’s free kick produced the final whistle, and another defeat for Marco Silva.
Game over?
Is that Andersen’s last game for Fulham? There will be a non-zero portion of the crowd that believe it ought to be. You won’t find many more obvious catalysts in football his sending off today - from flexing our muscles against a panicking Bournemouth to killing the mood of the team and putting Bournemouth back into contention. His individual errors have plagued us all season and there will be serious questions about his suitability for us as a starting centre-back from here, particularly given the contrast to the performance of Calvin Bassey, whose confident athleticism kept Evanilson and Kroupi from goal on multiple occasions today.
It’s a shame, because I actually think the backline was alright if you ignore the Dane. Robinson had a much improved game handling Rayan and Castagne fought valiantly along the wing to divert the energy of Truffert and Tavernier across the game. Even the goal relied on an element of luck, taking a deflection off a player to confuse Leno, and Bournemouth only started to seriously challenge the keeper after the red cards and with Fulham chasing the game. They were let down by the static play of the players in front of them - not for the first time, our energy was far below that of our opponents, leading to a lull that Bournemouth were able to advantage in their stronger period around the goal. Cairney, much as we love him, is not the man you want cleaning up around the box in the face of danger, and distance covered and danger defused by Scott and Adams demonstrates the difference.
On this point, there are serious concerns that have to be held about our attack. For as much as Andersen holds a lot of the blame for his error today, far too much of the match was spent listless and unproductive, cautiously moving the ball around without enough impetus to challenge our opponents. Muniz wasted his early chances and was shut out of the game by Hill and Senesi. Wilson has played dozens of games consecutively and has seemingly run out of magical moments, leading to deeply vapid and ineffectual moves along his wing. Chukwueze’s quality took place 50 metres away from the goal, and he lacks the confidence to take on the keeper - contrast this to Tavernier and goalscorer Rayan, and a major part of our recent goal paucity can be realised. Smith Rowe, the best of the front four, was missed in the second half, and whilst Cairney looked cool on the ball his legs can’t be trusted for a full game any more.
Things were better with the youngsters on - Bobb showed his Guardiola tuition on the wing, Kevin at least has the inventiveness to try and take on the full-back directly and King understands where to be for positive play to take place - but they aren’t reliable goalscorers, and the fact we’ve lost so many points this season in marginal games like this demonstrate it. The team are lacking the extra gear that takes them from a mid-table team to seriously competing for the European spaces like Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford are, and the fact we are within touching distance both on and off the pitch makes it infuriating to watch.
The Bourne(mouth) Identity
On the topic of Europe, Bournemouth are two games away from wrapping up qualification entirely. 55 points leaves them in 6th, still in touching distance of the absolute-guaranteed Champions League places, and despite Iraola’s imminent departure a fantastic side has been built for his successor to work with. We read a lot about smart transfer policies and Bournemouth certainly have one - every player that started today fits the profile of the modern Premier League footballer, with physical strength, pace on and off the ball and technical flexibility to move around the pitch with comfort and ease. They haven’t lost points in the absence of Semenyo, they didn’t miss certain suspended right-backs, and if coveted assets like Scott or Kroupi are pinched their conveyor belt of talent on the bench is well-placed to take the stage and continue the action themselves.
It wasn’t all smooth-sailing today, of course - Christie dented his good start with a horrific challenge, spared the scrutiny only because Andersen did similar minutes later, and if the team are to play European football next season they will need to erase such errors from the game. For all the pace and energy the finishing was poor - taking Evanilson off, whilst probably the right call, did mean a bolt from the blue from Rayan was needed to finish one of the chances the visitors produced, many of which could have given them an easier finish.
But it matters not - the overall acumen from the team is strong, be it Kroupi’s flair, Tavernier and Rayan’s pacey runs, the intelligence and versatility of Scott, the general-like presence of Adams, the diligent defending of Hill and Smith or the vision and awareness of Senesi and Truffert. It’s a great team, and they are about to achieve something we’ve dreamed of for some time in a far quicker turnaround. If Marco Silva wishes to stay on as our manager then one can only hope he learns something from the pragmatism and energy of our opponents today, because the Premier League exists for teams like this to advantage, and we are being left behind in their wake.